Chapter 84: Guards
Hugh walked out of the shifting room with a confident swagger. He had just improved his armor and fighting prowess through toiling over the dungeon.
He had worked hard, and it had paid off. He looked around the hallway and saw two students staring at him. These students wore the typical school uniform, but they had an armband on their biceps that made them a member of the Student Council.
Hugh guessed that they were a part of the Council Hands, the Student Council's foot soldiers. They had wide eyes as they flared at them with a sense of disbelief.
Hugh frowned as he saw these two acting weirdly. He had been away from school for a week, so he did not know what happened.
The last that he heard before he went to the dungeon was that the Student Council was searching for Veer. Seeing their strange looks, Hugh had a bad feeling in his gut.
Not wanting to deal with the Student Council any longer, Hugh ignored them and started to walk away. He had his eyes directed at the door to the outside.
Just as he passed the two guards beside him, Hugh felt a chill in his neck. His instincts sharpened from fighting life or death situations in the dungeon took over his whole body.
Without even looking back, Hugh bent his body low and quickly turned around to face the two students. He put his hands up like a boxer and readied to meet the two of them.
The two guards were irritated at Hugh for ignoring them. They saw him walk past them without even a glance, which was disrespectful in their eyes.
Not only that, but they also recognized Hugh the moment they saw his fat body. Hugh was the subject of all kinds of rumors and conspiracies. They could not let him go this easily.
They wanted to restrain him from escaping until their superiors got here. They did not know if Ace wanted to question Hugh further, so they would be in trouble if Hugh disappeared from their sights.
As far as they knew, Hugh was an F-level talent and at the unadvanced F-rank. He was the weakest of the weak, and they would not have to exert much effort to restrain him.
They immediately raised their hands and tried to grab Hugh's shoulder and pull him back. They were also planning on displaying a crushing force to his shoulders if he did not play nice.
Just as they thought their hands were about to grasp Hugh's shoulder, he disappeared from their sights. They saw him quickly turn around and face them with a fierce glint.
Their eyes went wide in surprise at the sudden show of power. They could not comprehend what they had just seen. Wasn't Hugh supposed to be weak?
What they saw was a fluid motion of dodging that was too fast for an F-rank like Hugh. They were speechless at the result that they saw.
Hugh was supposed to die in the endless horizon dungeon. He was stuck in there for a week, which would kill most of the people experiencing that. Even if he had survived, his brain should have been damaged to the point that he was insane.
The Hugh in front of them was nothing like that. All they saw was a beast hiding in sheep's clothing, ready to strike at them at any time.
Hugh had this aura around him that reminded them of the wild beasts they encountered in dungeons. As they looked at Hugh's sharp eyes, they felt a chill on their backs.
If they were going, to be honest with themselves, they even felt a little bit of fear from Hugh. They did not want to admit this, so they buried it in their hearts.
There was no way that they feared Hugh. That cannot happen. Their pride as a part of the Student Council Hands was at stake, so they had to assert their dominance.
"You! Come back here!"
Hugh frowned as he looked at the two students. He observed their faces, and he saw that their surprised face quickly turned into angry face.
Hugh could see that their nostrils flared, their foreheads reddened, and their shoulders toughened up. All these symptoms indicated that they were angry at him, and they want to fight it out.
Hugh had nothing against these guards, but if they wanted a fight, he was not going to back down. Since a fight would inevitably break out, Hugh decided to strike first. This was a lesson he learned while fighting the beasts in the dungeon.
Hugh activated his armor on both of his legs. The silver and brown liquid quickly solidified and gave him a boost of acceleration to approach the two guards.
The two guards did not expect that Hugh would strike first. They saw him accelerate towards them at speeds that they could not believe due to his weight.
In one blink, one of the guards saw Hugh's fist coming towards his face.
As soon as he saw that he was in range with one of the guards, he reared his fist and punched it towards the guard's face. He quickly transferred his armor to his punching fist from his legs.
Hugh's preparation did not end there. As his fist was traveling in the air, his fingernails mutated and transformed into eagle claws that were as sharp as any sword.
The armor continued to spread on his fist and onto his claws. In one swift motion, Hugh slashed his claws onto the guard's face.
"AAARRRGGGHH"
The guard felt a sharp pain on his cheek, and he immediately screamed in pain. He put his hands on his injured cheek and saw that his face was bleeding.
The guard could not help but kneel and scream in pain as Hugh's attack left a significant mark on his cheek. The other guard saw four large gashes on his companion's left cheek and continued down to his neck.
The attack was too fast and too sudden for the guard to defend against Hugh's attack. They did not even think that Hugh would attack so viciously in the first move.
This place was their headquarters, and they did not think that they would get attacked in this place. There was no way that someone would attack a member of the Student Council here in their base.
Hugh did not think about the consequences as he attacked the guard. He knew that if he did not attack first, they would have shot him.
He was only defending himself, and he was not in the wrong. Seeing that one of the guards was down, Hugh decided to attack the only guard left standing.
Hugh raised his leg and performed a low kick to the standing guard. His armor powered his leg, so it was fast and strong.
The guard had already seen Hugh's attack, so he was prepared to guard. He was not an incompetent fighter, so he could defend against Hugh's leg by parrying it with his shin.
The guard defended well against Hugh's attack, so he was able to counterattack. The guard raised his left hand and punched it towards Hugh.
The guard was secretly grabbing a small knife from his back using his right hand. If it was Hugh from before, he would not have noticed this and would be fooled by the feign punch.
Hugh closed his eyes and activated his eagle eyes. As soon as his eyes opened, it had turned into a rounded shape that could see every little movement in his vision.
With his eagle eyes, nothing could be hidden from him. His sharp eyes immediately saw the guard's right hand that was grabbing the knife.
He did not even have to look directly at the guard's right hand. He could see his movements just by his peripheral vision.
Hugh looked at the guard right in the eyes as the guard's punch missed his head on purpose while a knife was coming for Hugh's body.
Hugh grabbed the guard's wrist just as the knife was about to pierce through his body. With a swift move, Hugh bent the guard's elbow and tried to stab the guard's body with his own knife.